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Table 3 Health professionals: percentage of items rated essential within the non-comparative and comparative context (a contrast effect)

From: Impact of question order on prioritisation of outcomes in the development of a core outcome set: a randomised controlled trial

Context of rating

Percentage of items rated essential by a participant, median (IQR)

Difference in medians (clinical minus PROs) (95% CI)a

PROs (38 items)

Clinical (30 items)

Appearing first (non-comparative)

56.6 (42.1–85.5)

66.7 (60.0–83.3)

10.1 (−7.7–22.1)

Appearing last (comparative)

60.5 (26.3–89.5)

78.3 (66.7–86.7)

17.8 (−7.5–43.2)

Difference in medians (last minus first) (95% CI)a

3.9 (−23.7–31.6)

11.6 (0.0–23.3)

+7.7

  1. Number of professionals: PRO first n = 40; PRO last n = 31
  2. aBias-corrected bootstrap 95% CI